Social Inclusion Strategy for Tasmania

Food Security Moreland Victoria

Inquiry into Food Production in Australia

A Senate committee is undertaking an Inquiry into Food Production in Australia that aims to find out how to produce food that is affordable to consumers, viable for farmers to produce, and environmentally sustainable.

These forums prepared the groundwork for developing a NSW Food Policy, by providing an opportunity for local organisations and individuals to identify issues of concern or potential actions that were considered by the SFFA Food Summit.

Local food systems part of viable local economies

Local economics advocate, Michael Shuman, was keynote speaker at Hungry For Change.

A man in his early fifties who lives in Washington DC, Michael brought enthusiasm and passion to his presentations. He believes that locally owned business has a key role in making regions more resilient to the impacts of fluctuations in global markets and to other disruptive events affecting them from outside.

He produced evidence that trading in locally produced and consumed goods and services – including food – extracts more value per dollar for local communities, and this strengthens regional economies.

Michael appeared at the end of his Australian tour that had earlier seen him appear at successful events in Brisbane, northern NSW, Melbourne and Hobart.

His ideas add an economic dimension to the conversation around sustainability, one illustrated by the numerous examples he provided in his talks and one largely missing from the sustainability conversation. The success of his appearances made clear the value of organisations, individuals and local government forming partnerships to share resources and expertise for a common endeavour.

Michael’s Sydney visit was via a collaborative partnership consisting of the Sydney Food Fairness Alliance and Randwick/ Woollara/Waverley’s 3-councils ecological fooprint program in cooperation with Leichhardt Council, City of Sydney, the NSW Early Childhood Environmental Education Network and TransitionSydney. It demonstrated the effectiveness of the create > share > collaborate approach.

World Cafe harvests ideas

Participants fill the room at Customs House for the Hungry For Change Public Forum.

Following Michael’s presentation and a break for coffee and nibbles, a process based on the World Cafe model of participatory ideas development enabled Forum participants to produce ideas to be taken to the SFFA’s October Food Summit.

Themes that formed the focus for generating ideas were set up on different tables and participants moved from table to table to contribute to the different themes. The table themes included community food systems, ensuring Sydney’s food supply, keeping our food fair, urban planning, getting food to people, sustainable agriculture and food health and safety.

One or two SFFA members or supporters remained at the tables to familiarise new participants with the theme and with what had been done already.

Feeding Sydney locally: Table expert: Dr Frances Parker, University of Western Sydney, who has carried out extensive research into Sydney’s urban fringe agriculture Facilitator: Annie Walker, City of Sydney

Creating a food policy for Sydney: Table facilitator: Fiona Campbell, Randwick City Council

SFFA’s growing capacity

Participants discuss topics at the World Cafe tables.

The professional, organisational and geographic diversity of those gathered around the World Cafe tables demonstrated that the SFFA has the capability to communicate with and appeal to a broad milieu, and that over the few years of its existence the Alliance’s capacity to reach out to the public and to social decision makers has grown.

The recommendations to the October Food Summit from Hungry For Change participants will be written up by the table facilitators and passed on to the Food Summit.

Hungry For Change was organised by a team that included:

Fiona Campbell, project manager of the event and sustainability educator, Randwick City Council

Annie Walker, community gardens and volunteer coordinator, City of Sydney

Celia Bustead, environmental educator, Woollahra Council

Cheryl Walker, waste educator, Leichhardt Council

Lauren Michener, environmental educator, Waverley Council

Julie Gall, Early Childhood Environmental Eduction Network

Peter Driscoll, TransionSydney

Russ Grayson, SFFA.

The SFFA'a Hungry for Change Public Forum was held in the Sydney Customs House at Circular Quay, thanks to support from the City of Sydney.

The City of Sydney had generously made a grant available to support Hungry For Change, the competent services of the its communications department and educators as well as the excellent Customs House venue. Contributions in kind came from Randwick City Council, Woollahra Council, Waverley Council and Leichhardt Council.

Michael Shuman works with the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies in the USA. He was the second local economics advocate to visit Australia from that country whose visit had been organised by Ken McLeod. Judy Wicks had been the first. Proprietor of the Black Dog Cafe in Philadelphia and local economics maven, she attended Brisbane’s Go Local conference a year ago and made an appearance in Sydney.

Michele Margolis, publisher of the Permaculture Diary and calendar, contributes ideas to a table theme.

Ideas produced through the World Cafe participatory process were documented on mindmaps.